Good morning. Do you ever read parts of scripture sometimes and you become a little terrified, a bit afraid in a beautiful way? You think to yourself, man, what a beautiful passage. What a beautiful text. And then another part of you reminds you or makes you a question and ask yourself, is this true of me? Can this be said of me in every way of my life? Well, this week, I've had to face up with those two questions in my own life. Reading such a beautiful text as we're gonna read together and then asking myself, can I truly say that this is true of your side? If you're able to stand with me as we read, honor the reading of God's Word, reading from Philippians chapter one versus 18 B to verses 26. Here now the reading of God's Word. Yes, and I will rejoice for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed. But that with full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For me to live is Christ and to die is game.
If I am to live in the flesh, that means full labor for me, yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, but that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary when you account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, with your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning to honor you and to hear your word. If this were my words, they would just be my vain opinion. But this is your word, the bread of life. Would you use it to nourish your hearts this morning and to call us to obey you in every way? You pray all this in Christ's name. Amen, you may be seated. I first met Dr. Jack Arnold and his wife, Caroline, when I was about 17 years old. I soon got to know them really well, they were such a great couple, they had just started equipping pastors in international, which was an organization that was training pastors in Africa, Middle East, and Southeast Asia. I would soon find out about Jack, the late Dr. Jack Arnold, that his favorite passage in the Bible was Philippians 1-21. For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. And you know those people have those custom made letters or notepads that have an inscription on them, that was his life passage. In 2005, Jack had a cardiac arrest and went to be with the Lord, a dear man. But it's the way he died that was amazing. See, Jack was preaching at Covenant Presbyterian Church, a church that I would three years later be an intern and have the privilege of leading music for four years. And he was preaching on this particular passage, Philippians 1-21. And so Jack towards the end of his sermon, as he always liked to do when he was trying to emphasize our point, he would always clasp his hands. And then he held onto the podium. And he quoted the great John Wesley with this word. He said, until my work on this earth is done, I am immortal, but when my work for Christ is done, I go to be with Jesus. And he leaned back, fell down and died. There was doctors in the pews, they tried to resuscitate him, but he was gone. Jack had gone to be with Jesus. When I heard the news I thought to myself, this is sad, but you know what I said, what a way to go. So this verse this morning reminds me of something extremely special to my life. Reminds me of my dear friend, Jack, who I miss terribly. It's a special verse, but it also scares me. Because when you think about that, you think you could happen to you when you're sitting right there on the pulpit, preaching this wonderful message. But I do think that there's a lot for us to think about, as I just asked before we read scripture, is this can this be said of you and I? And so as I share this word with you, I share it with me, especially. And so Paul I think wants us to recognize, I just love the music that we did today. Thank you so much music team. And the prayers that John made were almost exact my notes on my sermon. And I kid you not. The words that he used were the same exact words that I want to use this morning, how the Holy Spirit works in uniting all of us and helping us to really think about what we're talking about this morning. And it's all about Jesus. It's about honoring Christ. So Paul wants us to put Christ first. Listen to what he says in verses 18-B and 20. He says, yes, and I will rejoice for I know the through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. This will turn out for my deliverance as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed but that with full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. You remember last the last two weeks as we looked at verses 11 and 18-A. And we talked about Paul rejoicing and being filled with so much joy. Why? Because the gospel of Jesus Christ was being proclaimed even by people who are against Paul. Even about people who are looking at Paul and saying, look at this man, he's now in jail. He cannot do anything so there were boasting and wanting to be the ones who were advancing the gospel and Paul says, I do not care. What do I have to do other than rejoice that the gospel is being advanced? But here he says, I will continue to rejoice and you wonder what more, Paul, can you continue to rejoice about? Well, he tells us. He begins by saying, I know, why don't think Paul is certain of his future? I don't think that Paul is saying, oh, I'm pretty sure what's gonna happen here. But I think Paul is telling us, or is showing us his confidence, his faith in God, he's saying I might not know what's gonna happen to me, but guess what? I have faith in the one who has called me. It is confidence that God will truly deliver him. And he uses this Greek word, so to read, that when you think about it, you might just think about, well, he's just talking about his deliverance from prison. And the word there that he uses actually means salvation, not just mere deliverance, but deliverance in terms of salvation. And so we ask ourselves, is Paul saying, okay, I think I'm certain I'm gonna get out of jail right now, or is Paul looking to the future and saying, I'm seeing my salvation in the very end, the vindication of my own life. I think commentators do not agree on which Paul is talking about, I think, but I think by looking at our text this morning, and even being able to look at a broader context in a pastoral kind of a way, it is both. Paul has confidence that God works his will in him, might rescue him from the chains that bind him. But Paul also knows, as we're gonna see, even if he's not rescued from those chains, that on the final day, he would not be ashamed because God will save him, God will deliver him. So he's looking to the future. And I think there's something to be said here of him, to even thinking about the book of Job. Remember, in Job chapter 13, verses 13 and 18, as we sang this morning about our rejoice of my redeemer, Job. As he pleads, it's caused with God in whom he hopes. And before him, he affirms his innocence. Remember, his friends had come to him and told him, it's because of his secret sin. That's why God is punishing you. And Job, what does he say? I know, I know I will be delivered. Whether it's from this sickness that afflicts me, or that is by me just dying one day, I will be delivered. But how does Paul says that he has confidence that this deliverance will come upon him? This salvation will come upon him. He gives us two things, a combination of two things. He says, by the prayers of the saints in Philippi and by the gracious provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, those two things will work towards my deliverance. See, Paul might be this mighty apostle, but he relies, he's not self-confident. But he relies upon the prayers of the saints, upon the prayers of others. Are there people in our life that sometimes we think, do I need to pray for that person, or are they just up there? And I'm just down here. The mighty apostle is asking the prayers of the saints. I think it's a challenge for us as a church today. Even the way Paul prays for his salvation, for his perseverance, what are our prayers all about? Our prayers, our prayers all about petitions, making petitions before God, not that there's anything wrong with that. Asking for things, asking God to take us out of our hardships, asking for health and wealth and all those things. Are we spending time praying for the perseverance of our own faith for the perseverance of other people's faith? Are we spending time asking God to help you and I stand firm in faith to honor Christ until he returns? And the second thing that Paul alludes to is that he says that he hopes he prays that there will be a fresh provision of the spirit of Jesus Christ upon him. Paul is not saying that he had not been filled with the Holy Spirit, of course. When we become believers, God fills us with this Holy Spirit. But he's looking to something that I think sometimes we do miss a fresh outpouring of the power of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we limit the working, the dynamic work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And I think I do so sometimes. We tend to reduce and tend to think or maybe the Holy Spirit is not really working in an instant. We don't believe much that the Holy Spirit does work in unusual ways to advance the gospel, not for personal gains. I think it's a shame sometimes when we try to use the name of God, the Holy Spirit trying to get personal gains, demanding that he act in a way that we want as if he was there for us to control. Let us be reminded that the Holy Spirit works in such a powerful and dynamic way. We cannot control that. We are not supposed to control that. We let God work in our lives. And Paul wants to be filled with this fresh outworking of the Holy Spirit. Why? So that Christ may be glorified, not for his own personal gain. He understands just like we ought to that prayer, that the Holy Spirit unleashes the unfolding of the plan of God, that God not only rules upon your heart and my heart from the throne now high, but that he also sustains you and I from within by his power. And then he says, he's waiting with eager expectation and hope not to be ashamed. You wonder, what is he waiting for? What is this great anticipation? I think Paul uses the same language in Romans chapter eight verses nine and he's speaking about creation. He's speaking about the fallen world that is crying out to God to be liberated, to be saved from decay. It's this intense expectation of something that's going to happen. And so Paul is saying, I'm going to go to trial. I have no idea what's going to happen in that trial, but you know what, I am waiting. I am eagerly waiting for God to come and rescue me, to come and do a powerful work in my life. And on that final vindication as he's looking forward to it, he says, I do not want to be ashamed. I want Christ to be honored. I know that Christ will ultimately try and for the all evil and that is where his hope is. You know, he knows that he's going to be asked to defend the gospel because as we looked earlier in verses 11 and 18, Paul was basically thinking and saying, I don't think that I'm the one who is on trial. It is the very gospel of Jesus Christ that's on trial. It's not me. It is the gospel that's on trial. I like what one of the commentators says. He says, but the ultimate confidence is that Christ will be honored. It is a hope that's bringing with certainty because it's based upon the fact that God is God and he has underwritten the future. That's where Paul's hope is. He knows what God is after. He doesn't know what it's going to be. He doesn't know what the outcome is going to be but he knows that God is going to make it happen. Then he says, I don't want to be ashamed. You know, when we think about shame, we think or maybe Paul is talking about red face, you know, he's talking about, oh, I'm going to be so shy or I'm not going to be sure how this is going to work out. No, actually the word that's used there has nothing to do with shame. It's about disappointment. It's about those who humble themselves before the Lord, they will never face disgrace. And Paul knows when I go to that trial, I will not be disappointed because my confidence is in God. I will preach and I will declare and I will defend the gospel as much as I can and I will not be disappointed. Christ, he says, will be exalted, will be honored in my body. Whether I die or whether I live. I mean, this is just a wonderful way of how Paul is looking at himself. He sees himself as this servant of God. He's not drawing attention to himself. It's all about the gospel, it's all about Christ. He only sees himself as a conduit through which Christ works through. He's doing what Romans 121 tells us, he's offering his body himself as a living sacrifice. Reminding us of where he says again in Corinthians that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit and we ought to see everything in our life through that lens of Christ and our body and now he has made us. Most of the times when we think about that, we don't think about this. We don't think about how we compartmentalize our lives. There's the secular and the sacred. I go to church on Sunday, but when I'm out there, I'm a totally different person. Jesus Christ is not honored in movements. Jesus Christ is not honored in buildings. Jesus Christ is not honored in organizations. Jesus Christ is not honored in anything else other than your body and my body. Jesus Christ lives in you and that is where his glory is manifested. He can work through organizations in political parties and all of that stuff, but that's not where he dwells. Scripture tells us that Christ is spirit dwells within you. That's what Paul sees. That's what Paul wants us to do to surrender our lives or our bodies because he says regardless of what happens to me, whether in life or death, in my body, Christ will be honored. Can you say that with confidence this morning, that God's Son, Jesus Christ Himself, will be exalted in you, that no matter your circumstance, that you have full confidence, full faith that God's will will be done, that Christ will be magnified, that he will not disappoint you. And then we get into this amazing passage versus 21, as Paul just explodes and amplifies his confidence in God, which I think is a declaration that should be our anthem as our church, should be a proverb that we should use every single day as a church universal. For me to live is Christ and to die is game. Do you recall what phrase that Paul uses all throughout his epistles? Paul talks about in Christ, in Christ. Everywhere you go, Paul talks about this in Christ and you wonder what is Paul talking about by saying in Christ. I think he's talking about his union with Christ. It's the inness, if you will, the inness with Christ. And the best commentary on this verse is found in Galatians 2.20. Listen to what he says. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. One commentator puts it this way. Life means Christ to me, Paul, to us. As I more fully know and love and serve him day by day, death means Christ to me when I shall finally possess and eternally enjoy him. Christ is laying his hold on the life of Paul. He don't know he lives in Paul, but Paul lives in him. He has become, Christ has become his very life. Christ is the center of everything that Paul does and it extends to his very own death. What would be your anthem today? What do you think would be your anthem today? I think it would go something like this. For me to live is to fornicate, to accumulate, to die, to wine, to go, to work, to garden, to travel. You can fill in the blanks. And if that's the case, brothers and sisters, to die would mean losing every single thing that you have. Does Christ mean everything to you this morning? If all of our joy and fulfillment is earthly and all things earthly, then the prospect of meeting Jesus Christ remains empty. I think if truth ought to really be told this morning, I'm not sure if it would really want to be with Jesus now. I'm not sure that that would be said of me that I would want this very moment to be with Jesus because I'm so comfortable here. I am so comfortable here. Not wanting to know Christ. If I do not know him, I tell you that the prospect of meeting with him is never going to be exciting. I think if we allow, especially in the West or comforts of our physical existence, to usurp the place of Christ in our lives has our only chief priority. This message from Paul will mean nothing. It will just be empty, readily. See, my problem, and I'm speaking of my problem, is that I say that for me to live is Christ, but this is what it normally turns out to be. I say that for me to live is Christ plus other things, plus other pursuits. And this plus factor, to me, becomes my primary pursuit and passion instead of Christ. I have no idea what is keeping you from having true fellowship with Christ. I can show signs that I'm going to leave. I can do that every single day. I can show up at church and dress up in a suit and share the gospel of who Christ is. But when I'm faced with trials, like I was faced this week, and I almost said things I should never say to anybody, because my mind was going to a very, very dark place. And I ask myself, if I lost this house, would I still praise him? If I did not have a home, would I still praise Jesus? I can tell you it's confidence that was not me. I never felt it, because I thought my house would be everything. It means nothing. Do we have joy and confidence, even when we're faced with death itself? Is Christ your all? Do you have a single-minded passion as far that you would say, I don't care if you kill me? I mean, what do you do with a man that says, if I live for Christ and if you kill me, that's gained to me? What do you do with that? What do you do with a man like that? I wish that was me. This verse really does hold everything together, doesn't it? That our progress and that of the gospel depends on whether you and I can say, honestly and truthfully, but for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. I'll give you the secret. This is amazing. You might want to write it down. This is the secret of facing difficult, life and pressures of life. You know it. Is that Christ and His glory is the motive for everything that you do. We know that. Do we believe it? That Christ is a singular passion for Paul. It's a win-win situation. You kill me? I'm okay. You let me live even better. This singular focus does not make Paul to be otherworldly, but rather it gives him a heart and meaning to everything he does. He's a citizen of this world, of this two worlds. His heavenly citizenship determining his earthly citizenship. Did you hear that? It's his heavenly citizenship that determines his earthly citizenship. We know how it is. That's not the case today. It's the other way. Nothing, nothing changes for Paul in life, in death. Christ's dishonor, and that gives him confidence. But he does something else too. It confirms his purpose. Look at verses 22 and 26. He says, if I am to live in the flesh, that means spiritual labor for me, yet which shall I choose? I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is really to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. And now I'm convinced of this, that I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress in joy and the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again. So after giving this great declaration in verses 21, he now explains what living means and what dying means for him. We see a man who is conflicted. He's in a dilemma. He's saying, what am I going to do? What will I choose? Will I choose what is necessary? Or will I choose what I so desire? He seems, I think, to think that he will be executed if you read verses 20, B and 23. And then later here, he's actually convinced. He's almost convinced that he's going to live. And so you wonder, did Paul have a heart, a change of heart in between the time that he was writing this letter? Did he have a favorable judgment that we don't, you know, that something happened and he was acquitted? Or did he have a divine revelation or maybe, just maybe he thought more deeply about God's purpose for his life? What am I here for? You know, Paul is not really speaking of certainty here. And I think we're not called to be certain of those things. We're called to be certain of who Christ is or who God is. He doesn't know what he would do. It's not like he understands that God is sovereign. He knows that the choice is not his. He's just speaking hypothetically. He's like, if I was ever to be granted an opportunity, if God was just to let me just for one little time to choose, I have no idea what I would choose. But I think we do get something from his debating heart. He's conflicted because Paul wants to be an example to the church in Philippi who will see this more. He has a desire though. He wants to leave. He wants to go. He's ready because he knows the inness is being in Christ is much more desirable for him to finally, I mean, remember this man was a tent maker. He never knew rest and he uses an interesting word here when he says I want to depart. It actually means weighing of the anchor. It's setting sail to go into a journey. Go set up camp somewhere. Paul wants to go set up camp with Christ and hang out with Jesus. That's what he wants to do. I want to be with Jesus. I think there's something for us to note here because we can easily read that and say, well, should we always believe us then say because when we doubt we're going to be with Christ, all right, I want to go now. I mean, Paul, I don't think he's saying that he's dissatisfied with life. I don't think that Paul is trying to escape life. I don't think that Paul, I mean, he even says in 1 Corinthians 15 that death has lost all its sting. I don't think it's a triumphant sentimentality of a trouble-free life, but a joyous embrace of the burdens of the cross of Jesus Christ. I don't think it's a negative view of life and death, especially death. The Greeks thought during the time that Paul was writing, that they thought that the body was a bad thing, that we needed to be freed from the bondage of this particular mass called the body. I don't think that that's what Paul is doing. I don't think that Paul is choosing that. I don't think either that this is some weird, kabokian, euthanasia idea that I think is from the pit of hell. I don't think that that's what Paul is talking about. This is what Paul is doing. Paul is not choosing death over life or the other way around. Paul is choosing Christ. That's what he's choosing. He's choosing to be united with Jesus Christ. And I think there's something to be said about death here. Because while confidence and tears should really do mark our attitude towards death and we mourn and we grieve over death, we should do so with so much hope. Do you know why? Because the tears that come upon our eyes when we think about death, one day will be replaced with so much great joy and you could ever have them. Would we, in our day, consider the option of living or death, more desirable? And if we would, which one would we choose? We're living in a culture where we are trying to prolong life as much as we can. I mean, you talk about youth. Everybody wants to be young. Nobody wants to age as God wants us to. We're so obsessed with life in our own culture that we are so willing to take the life of the unborn children in order to improve on the life of those living or able to live. Even sad is the way we keep silent as innocent people are killed. The image of God taken away and yet we say nothing. Why? Because we're trying to safeguard our own insecurities and fears. Look at what motivates Paul to live. It's not that Paul wanted to be the greatest apostle but that's why he wants to live. He doesn't say because he wanted to plant 50,000 churches even though that would be a great deal. What motivates Paul is that the church in Philippine elsewhere might grow in Christ, that Christ might be glorified. That's what motivates Paul, not anything else, that Christ is more important than anything else in his life and the growth of believers. He wants them to progress in faith for them to consider the needs of others as we shall see later in chapter 2, verses 3 and 4. And one commentator makes this point. He says, upon his release, he will be used to even greater spiritual health to the believers in Philippi and the effect of his future ministry among the Philippians will be a confirmation that it was indeed necessary for Paul to be released. To be alive, Paul considered what was more necessary of what he desired. He chooses what is necessary of what he wanted and how does he arrive at that? How do we arrive at knowing what our purpose, what our call is? How does Paul do that? He gives us two things and I think they're worth considering for a few seconds. And I think Paul leads to thinking about what really are our natural desires, our preferences and instincts in particular situation and secondly, what are our responsibilities to our whole, to our family, to our church? Do we ever think about those things when we think about what our purpose is? Are we all about Christ in his honor? Are we looking for the interests of others? Do you honor Christ? Not them. This is a bit funny, but it is true. You know, it's funny how sometimes we might try to kill each other instead of working towards unity by arguing which side of the church should the piano be on? It might sound funny, but we fight about things that are not really what fighting for. There are just preferences. They don't honor Christ. We can go either way and we would be fine. I think even more that's not really funny is our obsession with elevation of personal freedoms and rights, individual rights, so that Christ takes a peripheral place for my rights, my freedoms. That's what matters. I think if we fail to see what Paul is calling us, we will not understand how we put Christ first. I'm going to step aside just a little bit here, and this is not on my note. I am not qualified to say this in any way because of where I come from, because of my history, or anything. But I pray that the church would wake up. What happened in South Carolina this week should cause you and I to open our eyes because the moment we take Christ out of everything, the moment we begin to debate about stuff and ask ourselves, is this about mental illness, a bunch of thugs? Is it about race? Is it terrorism? Or what is it? The moment we start getting cues from the news media, the moment we start listening to a political parties and take Christ out of everything that he has made his own image and refuse to cause sin, sin, and close our eyes that we hate each other? We are done. Church. Issues about racism and abortion and about all of those things do not belong in the Republican Democratic or whatever party you align yourself to. They belong right here in the church. If we cannot cause sin, sin, if we cannot honor Christ in what we do, I have no idea what we are doing here. Finally Paul says, am I coming to you? Will cause you to glory in Christ? Some might read this and think, maybe Paul is just talking about this guy is going to boast about me and how great I am and all of those things but Paul, that is not really the rendering in the Greek. Paul is saying, you will honor Christ. It's not about them boasting in him. It's about them boasting in Christ. And in conclusion, life means Christ for Paul. His life is Christ and he is so close to Jesus, so Lord, I wish I was, that his entire existence derives his meaning from Christ alone. I think Rick Warren in his purpose driven life nails it. You don't even have to read the rest of the book. Chapter one, he says, it's all about Jesus. And that's about it. Stuart Townan and Keith Getty got it right on in their great contemporary hymn in Christ alone. No guilt in life, no fear in death. This is the power of Christ in me. From life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny, your destiny because no power of hell, no scheme of men can ever pluck you and die from his hand until you return or cause us home here in the power of Christ. I would stand. Would you stand in that power of Jesus Christ, pray with me? Lord, we thank you for your word this morning. We ask you that you would continue to work in our lives that we would honor you. We would glorify you in everything that we do. We pray all this in the name of the Father, of the Son, of the Holy Spirit. Amen.